This Week’s Tape: Heavy Week for Retail Earnings

Retailers will be the dominant sector on this week’s earnings calendar, with many big names in the space reporting.

Also, some housing data should provide clues about the housing market’s momentum.

Heavy Week for Retailers

Rivals Home Depot Inc. and Lowe's Cos. come out with their quarterly numbers this week amid a large grouping of other retailers.

Helped by Hurricane Sandy rebuilding and real-estate recovery, Home Depot–the country’s No. 1 home-improvement retailer–reported its strongest sales at longstanding locations in eight years during its previous quarter. It widened its lead over Lowe’s and, unlike a swath of other retailers, said it didn’t notice any strain on consumers from a payroll-tax increase. But it joined their ranks with a weaker forecast than expected, undercutting an otherwise strong report.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect Home Depot to post an 18% increase in per-share earnings and a 5% rise in revenue, while Lowe’s is forecast to report 15% growth in earnings per share and a 2% increase in revenue.

Both stocks have enjoyed big jumps since their recent debuts. SeaWorld, based in Orlando, Fla., operates 11 theme parks, including two Busch Gardens and three of its namesake destinations. The company has seen its bottom line improve on rising revenue over the past few years, and went public planning to pay an annual dividend of about 3% a share. Shares are trading above $38, up from the IPO price of $27.

ING U.S., an insurer and retirement savings plan provider, plans to change its name to Voya Financial in the next few years as it separates from Dutch parent ING Groep NV, which was directed to divest itself of overseas assets after a 2008 government bailout. The stock has traded around $24.75 on Friday, up from the offer price of $19.50.

Housing will dominate the sparse data calendar this week. The meager offering of data will allow investors to focus on speeches by Federal Reserve officials as well as the release of policy-meeting minutes Wednesday.

The housing recovery remains a bright spot in the economic outlook, and this week’s numbers on demand should confirm momentum building into the spring, thanks to low mortgage rates, brighter consumer sentiment and recovering job markets.

The National Association of Realtors is slated to report existing home sales Wednesday. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires is that resales rose 1% in April, to an annual rate of 4.97 million. New home sales, scheduled for Thursday, are also expected to rise.

Constellium IPO Expected

Aluminum products company Constellium NV is expected to go public this week, among a handful of other potential IPOs.

The company, which serves the aerospace, packaging and automotive end markets, said it might use the funds raised for working capital, capital expenditures, repayment of debt and funding acquisition opportunities.